Trump will consider restoring aid if talks with Ukraine progress, White House national security adviser says – Europe live

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US aid blockade could be lifted if talks with Ukraine progress, US national security adviser Waltz says

President Donald Trump will consider restoring aid to Ukraine if peace talks are arranged and confidence-building measures are taken, White House national security adviser Mike Waltz said on Wednesday, Reuters reported.

“I think if we can nail down these negotiations and move towards these negotiations, and in fact, put some confidence-building measures on the table, then the president will take a hard look at lifting this pause,” Waltz said in an interview with Fox News.

White House national security adviser Mike Waltz speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference last month.

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UK government spokesperson declined to comment on reports about the US cutting off intelligence-sharing with Ukraine, saying instead that the country was focused on doing “everything to put Ukraine in the strongest possible position.”

“It remains a longstanding position not to comment on intelligence, but what I would say is we have been clear previously that we would do everything to put Ukraine in the strongest possible position, particularly around defence and security,” the spokesperson said.

Hungary hopeful about removing US sanctions as two countries agree on Ukraine, foreign minister Szijjártó says

US secretary of state Marco Rubio, right, greets Hungarian foreign minister Péter Szijjártó in the Treaty Room at the state department in Washington.

Hungarian foreign and trade minister Péter Szijjártó said he was hopeful about challenging US sanctions imposed by the previous Joe Biden administration, claiming they were “created clearly with the intention of political revenge, in order to harm Hungary and later harm future Hungary-US relations”.

Speaking after his meeting with US state secretary Marco Rubio, Szijjártó highlighted the realignment in views between the two countries under Donald Trump, with the two sides agreeing on sanctions and on Ukraine.

“There are measures involving sanctions that affect Hungary’s energy security in the areas of natural gas acquisition and also nuclear energy, but there is also the sanction against Minister [of the prime minister’s Cabinet Office Antal] Rogán,” he said, quoted by a publication associated with the Hungarian government.

“We have launched the necessary legal procedures concerning all three issues and the secretary of state assured us of absolute openness regarding leaving behind us these revenge measures as soon as possible,” he was quoted as saying.

Szijjártó said he relayed Hungary’s support for Trump’s proposed peace talks on Ukraine.

We were also in agreement that repeated statements about having to continue the war as long as possible was not a strategy and was also a dangerous position because the longer the war continues in our neighbourhood, the greater the danger of escalation.

The minister also claimed, without offering further evidence, that “in Europe, especially in its western part, there was some scheming under way against Donald Trump and his peace plan.”

Conflicting reports on US intelligence sharing with Ukraine

I earlier brought you the FT’s report claiming that the US has cut off intelligence-sharing with Kyiv in a move that could seriously hamper the Ukrainian military’s ability to target Russian forces.

But Bloomberg (£) and Ukraine’s national broadcaster Suspilne are reporting that the flow of intelligence information continues.

I will keep an eye on that to see if there are any official confirmations either way.

US aid blockade could be lifted if talks with Ukraine progress, US national security adviser Waltz says

Russia jails Briton for 19 years for fighting for Ukraine

As Starmer speaks in the Commons, we are getting reports from Russia that a British man captured fighting on Ukraine’s side during its offensive in Russia’s Kursk region has been sentenced to 19 years behind bars.

Russia’s Investigative Committee said in a statement on its website that James Scott Rhys Anderson was found guilty of a “terrorist act” and acting as a mercenary, after he was captured while fighting in the Kursk region in November.

The statement, released only in Russian, added that the Briton would spend “with the first five years to be served in prison and the rest in a maximum security penal colony.”

Ukraine deal needs security guarantees to avoid breaches by Putin's Russia, UK's Starmer says

British prime minister Keir Starmer departs 10 Downing Street for the weekly Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) session at parliament in London.

Speaking in the House of Commons in the last few minutes, UK prime minister Keir Starmer insisted on a need to secure “a lasting peace” in Ukraine, saying that:

The whole point of ensuring that there’s a lasting peace – and that any deal, if there’s a deal, is defended – is to avoid conflict, to ensure that we do have peace.

The way to ensure we have peace is to ensure there are guarantees for any deal that is in place, because the surest risk that there will be conflict is if Putin thinks that he can breach any deal that may be arrived at.

Starmer was also indirectly asked about reports on US limiting its intelligence sharing on Ukraine, and he didn’t answer it directly, but said instead that:

I have always been clear that we need to ensure that the US, the UK, Europe and Ukraine, are working together, but we must not choose between the US and Europe.

We never have historically, and we’re not going to do so now.

But Starmer also subtly hit back at US vice-president JD Vance for his comments on European troops from yesterday, opening the Q&A session in parliament by paying tribute to UK soldiers killed in Afghanistan, stressing “these men fought and died for their country, ... fighting for Britain alongside our allies.”

In Iraq and Afghanistan 643 individuals died, and many more were injured, he says.

He later gets pointedly asked about Vance’s comments, and says:

We do remember the role that we’ve played historically with our allies, and we particularly remember those that made the ultimate sacrifice in that duty for their country and for our allies and that’s why it’s so important that we make that point today.

For more details on the PMQ session in the House of Commons, you can follow our UK live blog here:

No set plans for Macron's trip to Washington, Elysée says, despite government spokesperson comments

Angelique Chrisafis

in Paris

French president Emmanuel Macron arrives at the West Wing ahead of meetings with president Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, DC last month.

An Elysée official later clarified there were no set plans for a trip to Washington by Emmanuel Macron at this point.

Although Sophie Primas, the government spokesperson, had suggested a trip might happen soon with the UK’s Keir Starmer and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy, it is Macron’s presidential office at the Élysée Palace that handles his international agenda and brief for foreign policy.

US cuts off intelligence sharing with Ukraine, FT reports

Local residents stand in the courtyard of a building destroyed after a drone attack in Odesa, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The US has cut off intelligence-sharing with Kyiv in a move that could seriously hamper the Ukrainian military’s ability to target Russian forces, the Financial Times reported (£) on Wednesday, citing officials familiar with the matter.

The paper noted that the decision came after the US suspended military aid deliveries to Ukraine earlier this week.

Macron-Starmer-Zelenskyy meeting a French idea, government spokesperson says

France's delegate minister and government's spokesperson Sophie Primas speaks during the press conference following the weekly cabinet meeting in Paris.

Speaking after the weekly French cabinet meeting, the French government’s spokesperson Sophie Primas told journalists said she would not pre-empt president Macron’s address to the nation tonight, but added that

It is being considered that president Macron could possibly go back to Washington with president Zelenskyy and with his English counterpart.

She was later asked a follow-up question on the expected timing of the visit and who came up with the idea, and she said she didn’t have the information, but expected this to happen “in the near future.”

She said she believed the meeting was a French initiative.

France's Macron 'considering' fresh US visit with Ukraine's Zelenskyy and UK's Starmer, spokesperson says

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Britain's prime minister Keir Starmer and France's President Emmanuel Macron hold a meeting during a summit at Lancaster House in London.

French president Emmanuel Macron is considering making another visit to the US to meet US president Donald Trump together with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and British prime minister Keir Starmer, a French government spokesperson said in comments reported by Reuters.

France and the UK have been leading Europe’s response to the diplomatic crisis between the US and Ukraine after talks between Trump and Zelenskyy broke down last Friday in acrimony.

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